The invention pertains to a method of detecting collisions on an airport installation as well as to a device for its implementation.
To reach their parking points on an airport, aircraft travel on taxiways and come to a standstill in proximity to the airport installations. At the parking points, numerous technical vehicles move around the aircraft.
Having regard to the significant number of mobile craft on the ground (technical vehicles and aircraft) and to the proximity of the airport installations, it is necessary to implement solutions for preventing collisions between an aircraft and another aircraft, a technical vehicle or a part of an airport installation.
According to a first embodiment described for example in document U.S. Pat. No. 7,903,023, the aircraft comprises at least one onboard device for detecting collisions. This onboard device comprises several continuous millimeter wave radars, disposed on the fuselage and a system for processing and analyzing the data generated by the radar or radars.
This first embodiment is not fully satisfactory since the radars and the system for processing and analyzing the data are relatively complex to implement and are therefore expensive in terms of installation and utilization.
According to a second embodiment, the aircraft comprises an onboard device for detecting collisions which comprises several cameras and a system for analyzing the images originating from the cameras. This second embodiment is not fully satisfactory since the device is not operational when climatic conditions are bad or during the night.
As a supplement to these onboard devices, an airport air traffic control station comprises a first radar, termed the primary radar, which makes it possible to view on a control screen aircraft in flight in a monitored zone of the airport and a second radar, termed the secondary radar, which uses the signal of the transponders onboard each aircraft to refine the precision of the positioning of each aircraft in flight and on the ground.
Thus, each aircraft is represented in the form of a point associated with an identifier on the control screen. When a controller detects on the control screen a risk situation, he informs the pilot of the aircraft concerned.
This method of detecting collisions is not fully satisfactory since the controller cannot determine the template of the airplane on the basis of the point appearing on his control screen. Without this item of information, the risks of collision are difficult to characterize.
The present invention is aimed at remedying the drawbacks of the prior art.